Strawberry bread

Mmm...strawberries... Little did you know that March is strawberry season in Florida. And let me tell you, they are huge! At first we just got a pint from the farmer's market but it was gone so quickly we decided we had to get more the next week. 2 pints still wasn't enough, so the following week we got half a flat (6 pints). While we were at the farmer's market, Shelby picked up a newsletter called Hogtown Homegrown that includes a couple of recipes submitted by readers. One of these was for Strawberry bread (think banana bread with strawberries). Since we didn't think we could eat all the strawberries before they went bad, we figured this was a good way to use them up (and keep them for later in the freezer). The recipe includes extra (natural) fiber supplements and flax seed for a healthy snack.
The recipe makes two loaves of bread but we only had one (glass) loaf pan so we had to get another. Since we got a nonstick metal one, we figured we'd compared the product. The outcome was predictably delicious but we decided to get another nonstick because it was so much easier to work with.

The contestants square off...
Juicing the strawberries (OJ and sugar)
The official weigh in

Shelby with the decision...A tie (in my tummy)!

Since making the bread, Shelby became a saleswoman. She's participating in Relay for Life to help raise money for the American Cancer Society and support cancer research. Since we enjoyed the bread so much we thought we'd share it with others. So Shelby decided to offer loaves for $5 per loaf. So far, she's got 14 orders and hoping for more!

Strawberry bread recipe courtesy of Hogtown Homegrown
*note: this one is free:)

Calzones

The other day, Mack, one of the other students in my lab, asked me what we'd had for dinner. I told him calzones and he commented that we seemed to make a lot of Italian meals. I thought about this, then said yes, we did. I guess Italian is often easy, quick, and delicious. Case in point, calzones. Using sweet onions we got at the local farmer's market, and a tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes, we made calzones that could rival, well, a really good calzone maker. We included hot turkey sausage, mushrooms with the onions, and both mozzarella and parmegiano cheeses. Oh, and I had some turkey pepperoni in mine too. They were delicious, with some olive oil and kosher salt to top. We got a ball of pizza dough at Publix and each had a calzone the size of our plates. Yet, we were able to finish them and not feel bloated but good and satisfied. I guess that's what you get when you eat freshly made meals.


Air holes to vent the steam and let the gremlins out.
I actually finished this...and the wine too

Homemade calzones and red wine..a wonderful romantic dinner for two!

Weekend Meal: Spice-Rubbed and Sear-Roasted Salmon

We were super excited this week when we got our new Fine Cooking in the mail. We decided to make Spice-Rubbed and Sear-Roasted Salmon with Honey-Glazed Fennel.
This dish was really simple and light! It had just the right amount of sweetness but was also savory. We decided to pair the salmon with some rice (*we cooked the rice with vegetable broth, instead of chicken broth, and it was oh so yummy!) The dish would be perfect for a romantic dinner! It lends itself to an elegant presentation (as you can see in the picture below)

In Season: Sweet Onions

Over the past few weeks onions have slowly been coming into season. A few months ago it was scallions and now sweet onions are in full bloom. We cook a lot of dishes with onions so at the farmers market today we bought some rather "large" sweet onions.In an attempt to find a recipe for the onion "fronds" (green stems on the onion), we found this interesting website about Sweet onions

Helpful Tip: Leafy Greens

Ben and I love to buy lettuce, Kale and other greens when we go to the farmers market; however, we found that when you just throw it into the fridge the greens go band in 2-3 days. After some experimentation we found that if you place a damp paper towel in a plastic bag with the greens (make sure the bag is shut tight) the life of your greens is extended to at least one week! Basically it forms a moisture rich environment to keep your greens nice and fresh!

Steak and Potatoes: Ben and Shelby style

Last Friday, Ben and I decided to grill steak since the weather has been super nice lately. We needed a side dish to go with our steak so of course we chose potatoes! Now this was no ordinary steak and potato dish. We recently purchased Strawberry Fire Jam from our local farmers market. This "fire"jam is made with strawberries and jalapeno peppers! We decided that this would be a perfect glaze for our steak. So we marinated the steak in a balsalmic vinegar marinade (balsalmic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, onion, salt and pepper) for ~2 hours. We then put the steak on the grill and brushed our "fire" glaze (1/2 cup of jam, 1/4tsp cycanne pepper, 1/4tsp pepper) onto the steak. For our potato dish we made Leek and Potato gratin (from the Italian cookbook warren got ben). *if you want the recipe I can send it to you! In short, our dinner was both sweet and savory with a little kick! Just the perfect meal for a friday night!
*the picture doesn't do the dinner justice, I downloaded it from my phone*